skip to main |
skip to sidebar
minibeanie's half a year old! :) On Saturday, we met up with a couple of friends with small Finnish-Chinese babies. minibeanie's the eldest at 6 months, followed by Oscar at 4 months and Emil at 2.5 months. It's often said (and so true at that) that once you have a baby, your entire social life changes. Suddenly, all you ever meet are families with children - the closer in age to yours the better ;) That's because you know you won't bore each other with stories of breastfeeding, poop & how baby is/is not sleeping through the night. A friendly and sympathetic ear is guaranteed. And you needn't feel guilty when the little one cries or fusses because you know that your friends understand. Isn't everyone on the same boat? ;)
From right to left: Emil, Oscar & minibeanie.
Here's the recipe for the semolina cake (Finnish- mannakakku) that I made for the little gathering.
- 5dl semolina (tummia manna)
- 100g butter
- 2dl sugar
- 2dl plain yoghurt
- 1dl cream
- 1tsp cinnamon
- 1tbsp baking powder
- 2tsp vanilla sugar
- whole blanched almonds for decoration
- 2/3dl dark syrup
- whipped cream OR vanilla sauce
Preheat oven to 220C. Melt butter. Mix all dry ingredients. Have all liquids at room temperature and mix together. Stir in liquids into dry ingredients. Pour into a greased pan. Decorate with blanched almonds and bake for around 30min.
Remove from oven and while the cake is still hot, pour the dark syrup over it. Enjoy with whipped cream or vanilla sauce.
[For a healthier version, use vegetable oil to replace butter & lite cream)
minibeanie is 6 months & 1 day old
The roads are no longer safe! That's because I got my driver's license today! :> After 16hr 25min of lessons that included a lesson on moose avoidance and driving in slippery conditions, I could finally heave a sigh of relief. But I got an extra dose of slippery training today because my driving test was done on the worst winter day of the year. Not bluffing because it was actually reported on the Finnish news!
It'd been a bleak and snow-less winter so far but today, on the day of the test, there was a blizzard. Murphy's Law. Blessing or curse? The good thing is, I could go really slow.... the flip side though is that with gale force wind and a horizontal snow storm, it makes visibility really poor and grip a lot worse :# There was a white knuckle moment when I came to stop on a really steep slope and I just couldn't go even when the clutch was at the biting point because of the 5-10cm of snow. Argh...After several attempts of biting point-right foot off brake-slide-brake-clutch down-turn ignition key-------, I figured that the only way was to have my right foot at a 45 degree angle so that I could depress the gas pedal as soon as the tip of my right foot was off the brake. At this point, I was positively sweating under the collar :D
minibeanie is 5 months, 4 weeks & 2 days old
Let me retract my statement about minibeanie not having jet-lag. Over the last 2 days, he had been waking up at 4 and 3 in the morning respectively. And he seemed to have gotten terribly hungry as well. He would put everything that his pudgy little hands could lay hold of into his mouth - his socks, tissue, my bill..... Ok, I know this wasn't related to hunger; more like insatiable curiosity on how every darn thing tastes ;P Anyway, it was true that his appetite appeared to have gone up a notch. Today, I felt as if I was doing nothing but feeding him!
We started minibeanie on solids yesterday (how fun!!!). I'm glad I managed to stave off pressure from the neuvola (Finnish clinic) & DH to start on solids sooner. Now, nearly 6 months old, I think minibeanie's ready. I decided to debut with rice porridge soon to be followed by mash potato, then carrot, sweet potato and avocado. With the rice porridge, the lil 'un loved it! he lapped up a grand amount of 3-4 teaspoons each time :D
Waiting expectantly...this picture doesn't do justice to the almost palpable excitement and anticipation bubbling beneath the surface.
UUMMMM!
minibeanie is 5 months & 4 weeks old
We survived the flights back home! All in, the time we left our hotel in Chengdu to the time we reached home took nearly 24 hours :( We swore never to take this particular route again.....
Amazingly, minibeanie adapted immediately to the Finnish timezone. He was up & chirpy up at his 'usual' time at 7, pooped promptly after his first feed and showed no signs of crankiness - couldn't say the same for his parents! In retrospect, I guess he never left the Finnish timezone :D
Back in Helsinki, the real move begins. Moving companies to contact and loads of packing to do. And in the midst of all this hassle, time to start minibeanie on solids!
minibeanie is 5 months, 3 weeks & 5 days old
Over the last week, we visited 10 apartments in various complexes, checked out a couple of supermarkets and burned holes in our tongues with the Sichuan pepper.
On the topic of house-hunting, we narrowed it down to a new condo built by Keppel. We liked the design of the duplex but were not able to start negotiating proper because one owner was in Shanghai and the other gave an unrealistic furniture budget. How frustrating. Anyhow, we would just have to sit tight and continue negotiations when we are back in Helsinki.
Thankfully, huge supermarket chains such as Carrefour have reached Chengdu. I now know where to get LavAzza & Illy coffee for our moka pots, rice porridge for minibeanie and Betty Crocker's Brownie mix for that quick dessert :P However, there's a huge premium on imported stuff, and in many cases, as expensive if not more so than in Finland. I guess they will remain luxury items and we should try to have more tangyuan (glutinous rice balls usually filled with black sesame paste) which have a gadzillion brands as opposed to brownies and ice-cream. Yes, you read correctly. Apparently, ice-cream is either not a big thing or is a 'foreign' product. We were very surprised to find only a tiny selection of ice-cream even the local ones. But the strangest thing of all is that one just couldn't find tofu in the supermarkets!!! In the land of mapuo toufu, I would expect aisles of tofu; instead, zilch. Apparently, locals buy their tofu from local markets or neighbourhood stalls. What's surprising then is that manufacturers do not seem to have mass produced tofu. I find that incredibly hard to believe when supermarkets seem to be filled with locals and not expats. Surely then, there's a demand for tofu in the supermarkets? I hope to be corrected on this issue :)
Foreign food aside, there are lots of exciting new local produce to be tried. My mum bought some Mala Ganchang (dried sausage spiced with the ubiquitous sichuan pepper) and LaRou (dried meat) that looked and smelled wonderful. I promise to buy them when we finally move here ;P I've also invested in a couple of cookbooks that have pretty yummy pictures and promising recipes with not more 5 steps :D Let's see if they taste anything like what we've been having in the restaurants!
minibeanie is 5 months, 3 weeks & 1 day old
We have been in China for nearly 5 days and minibeanie is still living in the Finnish timezone ;) He poops at 2pm when he usually poops at 7am in Finland; goes to bed at 2am here when his 'usual' time is 8pm in Finland and appears drowsy when we wake him up at 9am in Chengdu to feed him :P
In between minibeanie's feed & naps, here are what we have been up to...
Szechuan Hotpot
Apparently, minibeanie wanted to try!
JinLi Street
Once the commercial heart of the old kingdoms, this ancient street has been fully restored in traditional Sichuan style. Little stalls selling traditional handicrafts and local snacks line the street. It was an enjoyable stroll in the cold winter night. I don't know why exactly but minibeanie caused quite a stir. I don't know if it was the sight of a rather tall laowai pushing a funking looking pram or if it was just how adorable minibeanie was, regardless, we were stopped every few meters by locals gushing, "how cute!" and "what a good boy he is!" Some even wanted to take pictures with him! He had fans ;)
minibeanie is 5 months, 2 weeks & 4 days old
On my new year eve post, I toasted to adventure. And adventure was what we got on our flight to Chengdu. What was supposed to be an 18 hour travelling time for Helsinki-Munich-Beijing-Chengdu, already an arduous journey in my opinion with a 5 month old baby, turned into a more than 24 hour trip. The Air China Beijing-Chengdu flight was delayed for 6 hours due to bad weather and it was made worse by the lack of information when it would actually take off. Apparently, Chengdu wasn't the only destination affected. Our first encounter with China was actually a very angry mob at the Air China ticketing counter where several folks had missed connecting flights and meetings. Very high octane and decibel exchanges :P
When we *finally* got onto the Chengdu bound flight, there was tremendous relief that we were finally on our way. However, when we disembarked on the tarmac, we were amazed that it was a rather small terminal. (For Finns, the airport was really similar to the Rovaniemi airport) We took pictures of the sign that said "Chengdu" with an arrow and of the Air China plane. When we tried to get out of customs, we were told that no, that wasn't Chengdu after all; we were in fact in Dazhou :D At this point, you were probably thinking that we boarded the wrong flight and although that would be quite a story, we were thankfully at a transit stop. The Chengdu flight (same plane) left half an hour later and after 45 minutes, we were finally there. By then, it was nearly midnight and all of us seriously jet-lagged.
Poor minibeanie was a little confused with his sleeping and eating habits.
minibeanie is 5 months, 2 weeks & 1 day old
What a whirlwind of activities the past week had been! After weeks of weighing 2 options, only to have the 1 that we were really excited about shot down and then haggling on the terms of the offer, we finally accepted it. So, it is official. We'll be spending at least the next year in Chengdu, China.
In fact, the ink is hardly dried when we had to prepare for the pre-visit where the contract is officially signed and an apartment found. The challenge lies in flying with a 5 month old baby and ensuring that he has enough milk & playthings to keep him entertained and happy. All in, we now have 7 pieces of checked-in luggage nearly maxing our 70kg baggage allowance. And by the way, that doesn't even include the Stokke pram that the airline allows for infants.
The flights are tomorrow but ironically, none of us have our passports! :D DH & minibeanie's are still at the Chinese embassy's - where apparently a 1-day visa takes 3 days. I think there had been some heated words exchanged between DH & the travel agency in charge. As for my passport (no visa needed, thankfully!), it's sitting somewhere in the mother-of-all-Finnish bureaucracies - the Immigration Police. These incompetent, pencil-pushing technocrats 'debate' with a pulla (bun) on 1 hand and a cup of coffee on the other, whether to extend an immigrant's / resident's residence permit for another 2 years. Meanwhile, they are at liberty to hold your passport for up to 6 freaking months without a guarantee on when you'll see your passport again. At the risk of sounding elitist, no mitigating factors are considered. Not my degree from Finland's most established school, not my relatively well paying job, not the fact that I have a son who's Finnish, not even the fact that I've stayed here for more than 4.5 years. Did I mention that I HATE the Immigration Police?
Sorry for digressing :P yes, so tomorrow we'll leave for Chengdu.... but not before DH getting my passport and I heading to the company clinic for some vaccinations. Fingers crossed and prayers said that minibeanie will behave himself for the 3 flights and 18 hours.
minibeanie is 5 months, 1 week & 5 days old
We're literally at the 11th hour before the new year. I can hear the distant boom of firecrackers set off by revellers around the city; occasionally, the night sky lights up with a shower of gold, red, green & blue streaks and stars.
But we are holed up at home. minibeanie is sound asleep, DH is suffering from tonsillitis and I'm about to drop from fatigue. But before I turn to bed, it's customary for a moment of reflection - after all, it's New Year's Eve ;)
2007 has been a mixed year for me. There was of course the arrival of minibeanie, an indescribable blessing. I turned in my thesis paper, graduated (finally!) from the master's programme and made it to the Dean's list. But there was also huge sadness. I lost my dad of whom I was particularly close to. I miss you, pa. But despite everything, I'm thankful for the many blessings. Onwards to 2008. There's excitement on the horizon as we would be heading to China. I shall leave it at that; more details will follow in time. Here's to adventure, happiness and good health for the new year!
minibeanie 2 days ago
minibeanie is 5 months & 5 days old
From right to left: Emil, Oscar & minibeanie.
Posts
